Another "album of the moment" here. This one is "Psychotic Symphony" by Sons of Apollo. I had preordered it earlier this year, got it 2 days ago, and have been listening to it repeatedly since yesterday. This album is easily my favorite of 2017 now, and it had some stiff competition (the new Darkest Hour and new DragonForce were both stellar). Anyway, the Sons of Apollo album made me do things I typically never do. I never roll down the windows and blare the music, but this album made me do that while sometimes shouting "YEAAAHHHH! SONS OF APOLLO!!!!!!!" I was banging my head so vigorously at every stoplight during my drive home that I actually feel it today. I'm sure other motorists were making fun of me for jamming out in my car, but to hell with them. I hold the smug opinion that because I'm going berserk with reckelss abandon and they're not, my music is easily better than theirs and they wish they were in my state of mind.

And when you have a band consisting of Mike Portnoy, Derek Sherinian, Billy Sheehan, Jeff Scott Soto, and Bumblefoot there is no way it can't be good. And it's more than good. It's magical. It is very proggy and has some 10 minute plus long songs, but nothing is overwrought or overworked. It's not just musical masturbation of "hey, look how virtuoso awesome I am!" but a very calculated album that a LOT of thought was put into. I also like that though it left an explosive first impression, it's also one of those albums that will keep surprising me the more I listen to it. I love that though there are modern elements that hearken back to Dream Theater, there are also a lot of classic sonic textures that hearken to bands like Deep Purple.

My favorite song so far is probably Divine Addiction. At first I was taken aback that it ended as "suddenly" as it did on a fade when it felt like there was more to do and I was really getting into it... but then I realized its brilliance. It's just like an addiction where the fix wears off without any real warning and you immediately want another dosage.

I only own 3 Symphony X albums- 1998's Twilight in Olympus, 2000's V: The Mythology Suite, and 2007's Paradise Lost. Of all those albums, I've listened to Twilight the most, V the second most, and Paradise the least. Anyway, that album randomly came on in my MP3 player shuffle while in my car this week... and I can't believe I haven't listened to this album more! It's incredible! It's heavy (I was headbanging at stoplights more than usual while doing "air bass" on my seatbelt strap) but also very proggy in that the songs have tons of really interesting key and time changes throughout. I also like that the songs are tightly structured and feel like real thought was put into them and they never devolved into mindless technical wankery or musical masturbation, even the really long ones. I groan when prog gets too self-indulgent and this never did.

Favorite songs: All of them are fantastic but my standouts are Paradise Lost, and Seven.

« Last Edit: November 07, 2017, 08:29:31 PM by Dincrest »

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You can brag about your 5000+ friends on social media all you want, but riddle me this: how many of them would help you move?

2017 is becoming "Album of the moment" for me. Prior albums of the moment (that were released this year) have been "Godless Prophets & The Migrant Flora" by Darkest Hour, "Reaching Into Infinity" by DragonForce, and "Psychotic Symphony" by Sons of Apollo. And although I haven't mentioned it in this thread, Efe Tozan's "The Last Birdling Soundtrack" is easily my favorite video game soundtrack album this year. Well, I have to add another " 2017 Album of the Moment" to the list: "Relics of a New Age" by Burial Mound.

Burial Mound is one of my favorite local bands; their music is fantastic (it's an enervating espresso blend of groove/melo-death/metalcore) and they're super cool dudes. I've seen them play live many times and their music is just like their live shows: exciting and intense. I've listened to their "With Honor" EP more times than I can count since 2012 and I had no idea they released a full-length back in March.

Anyway, this album is straight up awesome. Vocalist Mike Germano displays a wide variety of growls and even some sinister cleans and his enunciation has improved tremendously. It's like his vocal technique spent 5 years at the gym and gained 30 pounds of straight muscle. He had a limited range in "With Honor" and now his range has expanded. Burial Mound always had complex, but still hooky, songwriting and that's been taken to 11 too. Guitarists Nick Ursomaso and Joe Germano are a dynamite duo. They could be the next Jon Donais and Matt Bachand (the electrifying guitar duo in Shadows Fall). The rhythm section of bassist Dan Gunning and drummer Rob Gladden totally hold it down and really drive the music. This is 100% my kind of metal. I think my favorite song on the album right now is "Origins" but all of them are killer.

The "Challenge of the Gobots" theme song has been stuck in my head since the summer for months now. I'm not sure why it's been in my head and been making think deeply about Gobots (as shown below), but it is a cool song.

And I will admit, I actually liked the show and had several Gobots along with my Transformers. As a kid it was easier to beg for Gobots than Transformers since Transformers were way more expensive. Or when I had allowance money to spend, the desire to have a new toy right away involved me buying Gobots instead of saving up for a better Transformer (since saving up allowance took a long time.) Yes, there is no doubt that Transformers had the superior cartoon, toy line, and marketing (e.g. they could use the same fighter jet mold, paint it different colors, and sell essentially the same toy as 6 different characters. Even when mom and dad would say to me, "But son, you already have a fighter jet Transformer. Why do you want another one? Pick something different/unique." I would counter back, "Yeah, but the one I have is not Starscream!") Though the Gobots toys sometimes broke easily because they were twiddly to transform, there weren't many palette swaps like that. Each toy was unique.

But there are still some things that Gobots did right that have stuck with me to this day. The one thing is how the cartoon incorporated strong female characters better than Transformers ever did. Transformers (G1) just awkwardly shoehorned in some glorified sexbots, whereas Gobots had characters like Crasher and Smallfoot in place from the start. And neither was a fembot; Crasher looked like a sadistic race car and Smallfoot looked like a tomboyish mud truck. And one of the Gobots' human companions was A.J.- an African-American girl training to be an astronaut. That's pretty cool.

I know people will argue that some Gobots in the show looked nothing like their toys and/or size disparities (e.g. Cy-Kill's face), I could name just as many (if not more) Transformers guilty of that as well (Ironhide and Galvatron toys looked nothing like the cartoons. Megatron was gigantic as a robot, but shrunk tremendously as a gun). Heck, I would even argue that the Challenge of the Gobots cartoon stayed truer to the toys, especially in terms of how they transformed.

« Last Edit: December 30, 2017, 01:48:14 PM by Dincrest »

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You can brag about your 5000+ friends on social media all you want, but riddle me this: how many of them would help you move?

Something in my brain told me to listen to Puya while doing my nightly plank, and I'm glad I did. I'm also glad that a friend of mine told me about this band last year. This song "Oasis" is from their 1999 album Fundamental (which I listened to and it's a mindblowing album) and that song has more dynamism in it than many bands have in their entire albums. I particularly like that little funky riff around 48 seconds in. I hear metal, I hear salsa, I hear jazz, I hear funk, even some hip-hop... And dat bass, oooh dat bass!

There are so many bands out there where I think, "How the hell did they not get famous?" and Puya is definitely one of them. They played on major tours and supported some big name bands, yet no one's really heard of them. It's a shame because their music is really good and I've heard they slay in concert. It could be argued that they didn't make it big because their music is primarily in Spanish, but since when did language barriers stop other artists? Rammstein is internationally known and they sing in German. And, of course, La Bamba became a monster hit back in the late 1950s.

I just can't get into "Union", though. They changed their style on that album, and I can't appreciate as much as the previous two albums. The "Areyto" EP that came later is pretty good, though. Now that I think about it, they released a crowd-funded live album a few years ago (if I remember correctly) that's actually pretty damn good, as far as live albums go.

EDIT: Ever listen to Ankla? It was Ramon Ortiz's (Puya's lead guitarist) short-lived side project from about 10 years ago. Sounds kind of like Puya, but less dynamic, and much heavier. They only released one album: "Steep Trails". I wouldn't say it's a great album, but it does have some stand out tracks. Especially "Intro/Sinking", and "Deceit" (who's gonna hate blast beats on top of Spanish-style guitar?).

« Last Edit: November 17, 2017, 11:00:31 AM by Frostillicus »

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"Movies are better than people. You don't have to smell who you're watching." ~ Baby Cakes

Yo, after reading your post I want to explore Puya's music even more now. And, dude, I used to play in a punk band so I'm all about that raw production because that just feels more organic and "real/ street level" to me. As for Union, I listened to some of it and it definitely feels more experimental, but what I heard I liked. Then again, I dig when bands get experimental. I haven't listened to Areyto at all, though.

And, no, I'm not familiar with Ankla's music. I may have to sample some.

« Last Edit: November 17, 2017, 09:04:29 PM by Dincrest »

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You can brag about your 5000+ friends on social media all you want, but riddle me this: how many of them would help you move?

That i built the sky song was pretty darn cool. Speaking of instrumental prog metal, I just discovered this band today. They're called Analyzed Consequences and they're from India (specifically Bangalore. I have a lot of family from there.) I might have to put the Qualia EP among my picks for favorite album of 2017, it's so good. I love how the music so effortlessly incorporates ragas from Indian classical music. I always felt that Indian classical music lends itself really well to metal. "Colour" and "Nerves" are probably my two favorite songs on this EP, though all of them are good.

EDIT: My other song of the moment is "Little Birdie" by Vince Guaraldi. It's my song of the moment because I must have seen Charlie Brown Thanksgiving 3 or 4 times this week. I can never get enough Charlie Brown and Thanksgiving is perhaps my favorite Peanuts holiday special. And that song is so good and happily stuck in my head. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om9DIDru7pI

« Last Edit: November 23, 2017, 06:36:21 AM by Dincrest »

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You can brag about your 5000+ friends on social media all you want, but riddle me this: how many of them would help you move?

One is "Revolving Door" by Jordan Rudess. I was driving my mom somewhere and this album came up randomly on my iPod and after we got home, my mom was humming some of this. It was like modern classical to her and to me it's like the orgy love child of all my favorite video game soundtracks. Even though Derek Sherinian is my favorite keyboardist, Rudess is a keyboard god. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EREuKBi26yg

My other song of the moment is "Desert Song" by Def Leppard. For some reason, that song just popped into my head when I was taking a shower. I must say, this is one of the best, if not the best, Def Leppard song and easily one of my top 3 favorite songs by them. I used to be a huge Def Leppard fan. In fact, the first concert I ever went to was Def Leppard. And the album cover art for Retro-Active is absolutely sick! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxKHWeOcl0U

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You can brag about your 5000+ friends on social media all you want, but riddle me this: how many of them would help you move?

For some reason, the theme song for the Heathcliff cartoon from the 1980s has been stuck in my head all weekend. What's interesting is that, thanks to the Internet, I found the actual lyrics of the song and some of them are very different from what I thought they were as a kid. Gotta love misheard lyrics. So I'll be posting the lyrics along with the ones I misheard (and I actually kinda like some of mine better. They'll be in orange) The most notable of my mishearings is "Johnny Never-there" which my kid brain thought was a euphamism for someone who's really out of the loop and misses out on stuff. Either that, or someone who's lost a competition so badly it's as if they were never there.